Tisha Campbell-Martin: I Was Raped When I Was 3 Years Old

Comedic actress Tisha Campbell-Martin (pictured) was certainly not wearing her funny hat when she somberly discussed, for the first time ever publicly, about being raped as a child during an emotional appearance on the new FOX daytime advice show, “The Daily Helpline.”

The 45-year-old actress is a woman whom many of us grew up watching. Campbell-Martin, along with co-star Martin Lawrence, had TV viewers doubled-over with hilarity watching their outrageous antics play out on the ’90s classic sitcom, “Martin.” The same woman who once made audiences laugh now made them cry as she revealed before millions of viewers that an older man had raped her when she was just a 3-year-old toddler.

Campbell-Martin was a guest panelist on the “The Daily Helpline,” an updated version of popular advice columns of the past, with an interactive element. A panel of therapy experts answer questions from callers, tweeters, social media and in-studio audience. The show’s topics run the gamut from grief, to relationships, to addictions and the program’s two hosts are typically joined by celebs who share their own experiences.

Campbell-Martin, one of three panelists, offered advice to a young African-American woman who had been raped:

You can no longer be a victim, you have to be victorious at this point. You can’t play the victim because at this point, I’m not saying this to put you down or anything. What I’m saying is that he is winning, and you are allowing him to win. You are making a conscious decision to harm yourself, to hurt yourself and allow this person to still have dominion over your life. You can’t do that anymore.

Campbell-Martin then went on to reveal why she could relate to the woman by deciding to reach back into her old wound:

The reason why I can absolutely say this to you without judgment or anything else, and this is the first time I ever said this on camera in front of millions, national, people, is that I too have been a victim of the same thing. When I was three, I was raped by an older person. Now I knew as a child I did nothing wrong and that this wasn’t my fault, but I found forgiveness in the guilt that I might’ve had.